17 Jun 2016

Europe is renowned for its insane festivals. From alcohol-related to food fights to to running from giant bulls, they do all manner of crazy things in the name of tradition and fun. Here’s our top 5 cultural fiestas- try and decide which one you’ll be letting loose at.. if you can’t get to them all, that is.

1. Batalla del Vino in Haro, Spain

San Vino is one huge wine fight. The town of Haro in the La Rioja province of Spain is renowned for its wine. The locals love it so much that every year hundreds of them get together and throw it at each other. It officially begins at 7am on June 29th when the mayor leads everyone up to the city cliffs. Here the ruckus starts as all those carrying jugs, water pistols, buckets – pretty much anything that will hold a hefty amount of wine – begin pelting each other with saucy goodness. There are no friends when it comes to this war with a bottomless supply of vino. But I think we can agree that everyone is a winner in the end.

2. San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain

Imagine a massive weeklong street party, all day and night for nine days straight. Well that’s exactly what San Fermín is. The festival where the infamous Running of the Bulls takes place, you’ll have no shortage of things to do. The party kicks off at 12pm on July 6th when fireworks are let off, marking the beginning of festivities. From then on there’s non-stop drinking, dancing, parades, rides, and fireworks. Not to mention that daily Running of the Bulls at 7am every morning from 7-14 July. Let the Spanish show you how they party because they are certainly the experts.

3. Fetes de Bayonne in Bayonne, France

The French got a bit jealous of the Spaniards having a huge festival in the name of Saint Fermin. So they started their own festival – Fetes de Bayonne, basically the French version of the San Fermín street party. Festivities begin at 10pm when the mayor throws the keys from the City Hall balcony down to the crowds below. Why? Because for the next five days, the city belongs to the partiers. The King Léon keeps an eye on things from his throne, and is woken each morning by little kids. Everyone is dressed in the official uniform of all white with a red scarf and belt and the parties are epic.

4. La Tomatina in Bunol, Spain

La Tomatina is without a doubt the messiest party you’ll ever attend. The tradition has an unclear origin, but one version is that a man at a festival in 1945 fell off a float and into a vegetable stall. He became enraged and started throwing the vegetables around, and a furious crowd got involved. Apparently they had fun because they went back every year to continue the tradition, despite law enforcement’s efforts to stop it. Today, trucks drop tonnes of tomatoes in the streets that are already packed with tens of thousands of people ready to hurl some goop at you. The smell of tomato will haunt you for days. Once the fight ends, locals hose you down and if you’re lucky they’ll even sneak you some shampoo.

5. Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

Head to Oktoberfest and down some steins with 6 million other partiers at the biggest festival in the world. Your only responsibilities? Drink beer, eat pretzels, and dance on benches in your Lederhosen or Dirndl. Tip: if you put one foot on the table, you’re committing to chugging your entire beer. There’s no backing out of this one, the crowd is not friendly if you back out. But if you make it, the entire tent will be cheering for you. Try going on a rollercoaster while you’re boozy and blissful, you’ll feel like a kid again.

So now that you’re fully informed, good luck making a decision. The Europeans sure know how to party. You don’t just get to join them while they celebrate; you also get to experience all their weird and wonderful cultures. Put on your dancing shoes and see you there!